1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air bag system against automobile collision and specifically relates to a computer processor based system for controlling air bag inflation size and air bag absorption quantity for reducing injury to passengers and reducing damage to vehicles and objects involved in an accident.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various schemes have been adopted to protect passengers of a vehicle from injuries resulting from collisions. Numerous attempts in the art from bumper construction to air bags to vehicular control and warning systems have come about to protect the occupants of the vehicle. A plethora of patents exemplify various automotive devices known for human protection. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,937 issued on Jun. 16, 1987 to Davis describes a Doppler radar system for a vehicle providing driver warning, vehicle brake application and air bag deployment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,160 issued to White et al. on Dec. 10, 1991 describes a circuit for actuating a vehicle passenger safety restraint such as an air bag. U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,226 issued to Gentry et al. on Jul. 19, 1994 describes an apparatus for controlling actuation of a vehicle occupant restraint system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,314 issued to Corrado et al. on Jan. 9, 1996 describes a system for sensing the presence, position, and type of an occupant in a passenger seat of a vehicle for use in enabling or disabling a related air bag activator. U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,347 issued to Adolph et al. on Jul. 28, 1998 describes an occupant sensing and crash behavior system for a motor vehicle determines the presence and location of an occupant to then control the deployment of supplemental restraint systems such as air bag or inflatable seat/shoulder belts. U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,782 issued on Nov. 3, 1998 to Breed et al. describes a vehicle interior identification and monitoring system to identify and monitor contents and/or parts of the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,232 issued on Feb. 16, 1999 to White describes an occupant position sensing system.
German Patent No. 2 256 146 issued on Jun. 7, 1973 describes a vehicle air cushion to prevent injury during a collision to occupants of an automobile. German Patent No. 3 809 074 issued on Oct. 5, 1989 describes an air bag protection system for a vehicle. German Patent No. 4 005 598 issued on Aug. 29, 1991 describes a method of protecting motor vehicle occupants that involves detecting the acceleration of the vehicle and activating an occupant protection device when a defined level of acceleration is exceeded.
Despite this regard for reducing human danger, in most collisions the damage to the vehicle is unmitigated; creating substantial costs for repair or replacement. Few proposals have been made to reduce the cost of repair or replacement of an automobile involved in a collision. U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,019 issued on Mar. 6, 1990 to Takase et al. describes a motor vehicle collision sensing device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,137 issued on Apr. 21, 1992 to Curtis describes a vehicle bumper with combination foam and air bag energy absorber. U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,037 issued on May 24, 1994 to Shaw et al. describes an automobile collision avoidance system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,357 issued on Oct. 24, 1995 to Yoshioka et al. describes a obstacle detection device for a vehicle for detecting an obstacle so the vehicle can take a responsive and appropriate action for avoiding the obstacle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,870 issued on Oct. 15, 1996 to Fukuhara et al. describes a radar apparatus that measures a distance to a target and the relative speed of the target. U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,705 issued on May 27, 1997 to Asayama describes an obstacle detecting system for a motor vehicle which is capable of detecting not only the distance to an obstacle existing in front of the motor vehicle and the width thereof, but also its height to thereby allow a motor vehicle control to be effected more appropriately with high reliability. U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,613 issued to Cho on Jul. 8, 1997 describes a system for minimizing automobile collision damage using radiant energy detectors and externally deployed air bags for aiding in damage reduction of automobile collisions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,552 issued to Cho on Sep. 28, 1999 describes a system for minimizing automobile collision damage and personal injury using detection sensor unit, computer processing unit (CPU), energy absorbing inflation devices, and external and internal air bag inflation devices.
German Pat. No. 2 922 273 issued on Jan. 22, 1981 describes a vehicle collision safety device with an inflatable air bag that transmits an ultrasonic beam ahead of a vehicle to detect an approaching obstacle. European Patent No. 0 210 079 issued on Jan. 28, 1987 describes a Doppler radar system for a motor vehicle.
However, none of the above inventions and patents taken either singularly or in combination, except U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,646,613 and 5.959.552, describe an air bag system capable of providing collision protection against both personal injuries and automobile body damage. Thus a system for inflation of air bag solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
The present invention is an air bag system for an automobile. The air bag system serves to provide collision protection against injury to passengers and pedestrians and damage to vehicles and objects. The system includes at least one external air bag inflation device, at least one internal air bag inflation device, an external detection system, an internal detection system, a wireless system, and a computer processing unit. The external detection system is installed in the automobile body, lamp post, and satellite for detecting information relating to vehicles, objects, and pedestrians. The internal detection system is installed in the automobile body for detecting information relating to passengers and goods inside the automobile. The wireless system installed in the automobile body, lamp post, and satellite for providing information to a CPU. The CPU installed in the automobile is provided information by the external detection system, the internal detection system, and the wireless system to process the information to control the function of each related device installed in the external air bag inflation device installed inside of the automobile body and the function of each related device installed in the internal air bag inflation device installed inside of the automobile body.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide an automobile air bag system with the CPU function to control inflation, inflation size of the air bag, and impact absorption of the external and internal air bags.
It is another object of the invention to provide an automobile air bag system with a structure of external and internal air bag inflation devices.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.